This invention relates generally to a wall safe for the convenient and secure storage of valuables therein and to means for hinging of the access door of such a wall safe to its door opening defining surfaces. More specifically, this invention relates to a wall save having a box adapted to fit between the wall studs of a building and having a flat, rectangular shaped face plate with projecting edge portions which extend across or nearly across the front edges of the wall studs.
Wall safes adapted for placement between adjacent wall studs of a building have long been known in the prior art, generally speaking. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,644,410 issued to S. L. Belknap on October 4, 1927 which discloses a wall safe adapted to fit snugly between two wall studs of a building and having a box or receptacle for valuables attached to the studs by means of wood screws driven through its side walls. Note the relative ease with which a burglar could wedge a crowbar, claw hammer or other suitable tool between a side of the reference receptacle and the adjacent wall stud to rip the safe free from its mounting. This problem had been somewhat overcome previously as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 264,172 issued to J. H. Laskey on Sept. 12, 1882 in which he disclosed a wall safe for railway cars having a receptacle or box for storage of valuables closely fitted between vertical timbers in the walls of a car, which box contains a front flange projecting beyond the vertical sides of the box across or nearly across the front surface of the box confining timbers. The flange is bolted from the front into the box confining timbers at several places to secure the assembly. The obvious problem here is the accessibility of the bolt heads and the ease with which a burglar can remove them with the appropriate tool to thus remove the safe assembly from the railroad car wall.
My invention substantially overcomes these and other difficulties in the construction of wall safes and their door hinging means which have previously existed in the prior art.